Grand Rapids’ Olds Manor to be Redeveloped

Tuesday morning, developers announced that Olds Manor, one of the last major vacant buildings in downtown Grand Rapids, is being redeveloped.

CWD Real Estate plans to restore the building at the corner of Michigan and Monroe into a mixed-use building that will include 9,500 square feet of retail and restaurant space on the ground floor, 77 market-rate one- and two-bedroom apartments, and a limited number of for sale condominiums.

The building was formerly the Rowe Hotel and will be called The Rowe.

The project includes the complete restoration of the building's two historic façades and creation of an underground parking facility. Rooftop amenities including an outdoor terrace, indoor community room, and fitness facilities are also planned.

Developers are seeking the support of the Brownfield Redevelopment Authority and Downtown Development Authority for the project and public meetings will commence in early January.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2015 and be completed in late 2016.

The original Rowe Hotel was opened in January 1923 by Fred N. Rowe, president of the then Grand Rapids-based Valley City Milling Company. At the time of opening it offered about 300 rooms in eight stories. It was sold to the Manager hotel chain in the 1940s. By the early 1940s the area of the city in which it's located had strong pedestrian traffic and it was a hub for rail cars, factories and wholesale businesses. The owners renamed it the Manager-Rowe and it remained a hotel through the early 1960s. In 1963, the American Baptist Home and Development Corporation purchased the building and converted it to a home for the elderly. The building was closed in 2001.